HOW TO FIND MEDICAL PRICES & SCORE SUPERB VALUE: PART I

HOW TO FIND MEDICAL PRICES & SCORE SUPERB VALUE: PART I

FINDING MEDICAL PRICES…BUT FIRST SOMETHING ABOUT FAIRIES

[RECENT NOTE 3/28/2017: Sovereign Money Solutions (LLC)–This is the legally incorporated name of the limited liability corporation that owns Sovereign Liberty Solutions and all related social network accounts in addition to the related Sovereign Solutions BLOG on this website.

The decision has been made to utilize a more attractive and less ambiguous name in regards to what we have evolved into doing more precisely: creating, curating, and sharing liberating (LIBERTY) news, opinion, and solutions. Any direct services language pertaining to healthcare shopping and healthcare bill review that one may find perchance is accidental. We only provide, directly, free information as described above.

It is an easier, more fun, and fruitful objective to strike the root of various problems by promoting liberating information, news, and analysis worthy of a truly sovereign individual. Resource limitation and money problems obviously applies still in regards to our efforts here, so I keep some of the older works that at first blush may appear a little off in comparison to what we promote and do these days]

First and most importantly, good day!

I appreciate that you are being proactive and solutions oriented, really and truly.

We all know that something is wrong, except for maybe the resident internet trolls. I might as well add in the politicians and their inextricable crony loser business “interests.”

Really, trolls and anti-competitive political losers alike, let’s just agree to ignore them—feeding them attention and respect or even our disgust only permits their terrible and pathetic existence and in fact even empowers and emboldens them.

Many do not like trolls and trolls do not even like themselves. How could they? They are suffering and in doing so causing you and me to suffer—if we only stop believing in them, like with a certain fictional fairy, then they will just no longer exist!

Anyway, let me get back on track. While fairies and various other mythical creatures can be interesting you may wish to know why it is so important for you to be with me right now!

THE GOODS TO EXPECT HERE

Low medical prices and high quality: making the impossible possible

This article is just the beginning, a basic introduction of key information to a POWERFUL series. The intention is to convey vital, money-saving information into digestible servings, so that you can enjoy the savory morsels. Gluttonous, unhinged consumption doesn’t really lend way to satisfaction after all.

You see, I care to please your palate…as well as your wallet. Yup, I’ve got a bit of the culinary in me…at least metaphorically anyway. Reality is…a work in progress!

More specifically, this series will accomplish JUST WHAT THE TITLE TO THIS ARTICLE SAYS: YOU will be able to better find medical prices and discover greater value in your healthcare purchases. As to the way it is broken up, such will be based on WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT GENERAL SORT OF HEALTHCARE PURCHASING CIRCUMSTANCES YOU ARE IN.

So, in other words, one part will address healthcare prices associated with a person that has employer-sponsored medical care insurance, another will address and illustrate for medical tourism outside of the nation, etc. I will also, for certain, include a piece to the series that addresses the price and value conundrum for the small to perhaps middle sized business owner that wishes to provide some medical related benefits to their employees.

HEALTHCARE’S SHITCREEK: WHERE YOU DON’T WANT TO BE

Responsible, fair, and transparent pricing is a lost stop on the way to healthcare service delivery. Do not expect to know medical prices before billing with customary passage

It’s a lonely place, where no man wants to be. Apparently, also, it is kind of yucky.

Oh, and even more interestingly, it doesn’t really show up on any map. If it did then maybe nobody would be there. Or maybe, even with a map and even a GPS handy, this would happen! Let’s hope this would not be you or I.

Anyway, our creek for the purpose of this piece is that time when you must or really want to receive medical care.

Yes, of course, there are times in which emergency reduces time to shop, though there are some things one can do to plan for such a time. However, that fact does NOT eliminate the usefulness of learning to shop when care services can be deferred for some time especially.

So why do I use the creek idiom? Well, for starters, I wish to hit you square in the eyes—this is an important topic, and I have a lot to offer you; however, mincing words will not cut it.

I COULD act all professional like and refuse to present some emotion like some stuffy old codger of a ‘respectable’ wealth adviser or banker—but I won’t. You deserve the truth, no matter how ugly or ‘uncouth.’

Heh, I guess I just called myself ugly. 😉

FROM HAPLESS VICTIM TO PURPOSEFUL VICTOR

Winning BIG all starts with baby steps

YOU are up that creek without a paddle, YOU are in a seemingly win-less situation. Well, no more; let me be your paddle.

Heck, I’m more like a motor.

There are some steps one can take, whatever his situation, to FIND PRICES AND GET VALUE FOR MEDICAL CARE. Don’t allow yourself to be a victim—be victorious with your health and how much you pay for it.

Victory baby steps

So let’s start with baby steps. It won’t be easy for you to conquer the fearsome dragon of a market that is euphemistically known as healthcare or medical care.

Meh, a dragon might be a bit much I guess. It may be more like a labyrinth and a Minotaur. Just don’t wear red around him.

At any rate, this won’t be easy. But remember this: nothing worthwhile ever is, really. Your baby steps begin with what I offer to you in this piece besides the introduction to what this series is all about: PROBLEM RECOGNITION.

Yes. The passage to shit creek that you and I usually travel while in pursuit of our intended destination of quality, affordable healthcare goes straight through no-man’s land of responsible, fair, and transparent pricing. No stops here are allowed though—purposefully I may add, because, well, your guide is a real jerk.

Oh, there will be many posts on this subject in the future, dear reader.

Seriously, and this will be a major theme that Sovereign Liberty Solutions as well as I will focus on: any market that does NOT offer transparent pricing is a rigged one, one unworthy of YOU and me.

Healthcare is ridiculous. What other industry offers anything near to what healthcare does in regards to pricing and ultimately high medical prices?

Pricing a vehicle proves difficult but is STILL nothing compared to purchasing healthcare!

Buying a car can be a hassle.

Vehicle pricing is often tedious and fraught with crafty and even intentionally misleading figures and schemes that appear at first glance, and with the obligatory salesman manufactured gusto, as supremely beneficial and “hard to pass up.”

In laymen terms, purchasing a car sucks.

But at least there is a respectable range to go by in regards to figuring out a good deal. As long as you do basic homework and have “looked online,” then you will be solid, solid enough to not get royally screwed. Not so in healthcare. Medical prices rarely see the light of day before you get that big, bad bill.

Indeed, in the realm of true, unbiased economics we see the vital importance of PRICE DISCOVERY in markets, yet despite such importance, it is conspicuously absent in healthcare.

Is it any wonder then why healthcare in America is so screwed up?

NO PRICES EQUALS LOW VALUE! NO PRICES EQUALS BUYERS GETTING SCREWED.

Quite simply, there is no price discovery in healthcare, and therefore value is not sought for or largely found by buyers like you and me, or really even innovated by producers, those that task themselves to provide care services that are so vital to an individual’s health.

Ah, but what is in it FOR ME, you say?

Well, I want to show YOU how to begin finding prices so that you can better discover and capitalize off of value. It is relatively hard, inefficient, and it should not really be necessary, but finding prices is at least possible at this point!

In the next piece I will focus on what happens with an individual that has a health insurance policy from a group plan—in other words, this person has a health insurance plan sponsored, and probably significantly subsidized, by his employer. I will give you a great deal of detail and show you how in these general circumstances you can find medical prices and do some basic comparison shopping.

Other pieces in this series will account for those that have other circumstances.

As always, take care.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Do you have any objections, thoughts, concerns, or contributions? I REALLY WANT TO KNOW. Help me to make this a conversation!

Together we can map out better solutions and truly navigate clearer paths towards quality services, low prices, and better lives.

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My name is Matthew. I am founder of and manage Sovereign Liberty Solutions.
I am a proponent of free, voluntary association and expression. I understand that there is no single exception or excuse to violate this with the initiation of force, fraud, and coercion.
I welcome a genuine dialogue & seek information, news, analysis, and, of course, solutions, whether it be on the individual level or a more voluntary association [group] or even "national" one.